Xbox 720 to arrive before 2014?

Microsoft advert suggests next Xbox console could arrive before 2014

Microsoft has inadvertantly hinted that the next Xbox gaming console could be released before 2014

A job advert for a senior position at Microsoft's entertainment division has hinted that the next-gen Xbox console will see release before 2014.

The listing, which advertises for a Central Marketing Group Director contains the information that "over the next eighteen months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products including Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox, along with completely new offerings like Microsoft Surface".

It's the clearest indication thus far that the computing giant's next gaming console, which analysts are calling the Xbox 720, will be launched before 2014.

The job advert also echoes comments made by general manager of Windows Live, Brian Hall, who said in an interview with The Verge that: "we've operated Hotmail for about 16 years, we obviously have Exchange and Outlook that people use at work, and we just decided it was time to do something new and bring the best from each of those and put them together and release it right in time for the new wave of products that we have coming out with Windows 8, with the new version of Office, with the New Windows Phone and the new Xbox."

CVG has reported that Microsoft insisted this week that Hall's comments were allegedly "not understood in their intended context".

Official Xbox 360 Magazine's Editor, Jon Hicks says that while Microsoft has emphatically avoided any comment on the future of the brand, the software market is gearing up for big news next year.

"All the major games, including Microsoft's own Xbox 360 exclusive titles, have been announced for the first half of 2013," says Hicks, "which leaves the way clear for a new console to be debuted at E3 in June."